Five Towns Crime Watch

Cedarhurst residents sentenced in Ponzi scheme

Posted
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 12:35 pm

Andrew S. Mackey, 62, was sentenced on Nov. 9, for his role in a Ponzi scheme that cheated more than 150 investors out of over $12 million. His common-law wife, Inger L. Jensen, 54, was sentenced on Aug. 12. Both are Cedarhurst residents.

Mackey was sentenced to serve 27 years in a federal prison and ordered to $6,650,067 in restitution. His sentence also included three years of supervised release should he be released. Jensen was sentenced to 14 years. A jury convicted both of 15 counts of wire and mail fraud, and conspiracy on May 16, after an eight-day trial.

Through 2003 to ’07, Mackey and Jensen operated ASM Financial Funding Corporation in Valley Stream. They promoted themselves as investment advisors and financial experts who catered only to a small and select group of sophisticated investors. The pair told investors they would use their sources to put invested money in private and confidential offshore business deals that would earn up to 20 percent interest per month.

Investors could either reinvest their earnings or receive monthly payments from ASM. Evidence showed that the couple invested less than one-third of the money taken from investors and never generated any profits. In addition, Mackey and Jensen lost the total amount of money they invested on behalf of their clients.

Then they used the other two-thirds of the investors’ money to operate their fraudulent scheme, to pay their own personal expenses and to pay make-believe profits to some of the early investors to give ASM an air of legitimacy.

“All though we have prosecuted many multi-million dollar Ponzi schemes in recent years, defendant Mackey’s sentence is the longest imposed in this district for a case of this type,” said U.S, Attorney Sally Quillian of the Northern District of Georgia. “We hope that the sentences imposed in this case will serve as a warning to anyone who is considering defrauding investors in this district.”

Crime Watch

Arrest

HEWLETT – Christine M. Croke, 44 of the Arverne section of Queens, was arrested for driving while intoxicated at 1:13 p.m. on Oct. 31, police said.

Criminal mischief

WOODMERE – Between 5 a.m. and noon on Oct. 30, a vehicle parked on Clubside Drive was damaged, according to police.

INWOOD – The window of the attendant’s area at a gasoline station on Sheridan Boulevard was damaged at 8:47 p.m. on Oct. 31, authorities said.

INWOOD – A vehicle parked on Merrill Place was damaged between 9 p.m. on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at 8 a.m., officials said.